How do I get notifications from my phone on my Fitbit device?

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Your Fitbit device can receive notifications to keep you informed, such as text messages, phone calls, and meeting alerts, when your phone is nearby. After you create your Fitbit account and pair your device, getting notifications working takes a few more steps. Find the details below.

What are my choices for notifications?

You can choose to see calls, texts, calendar events, and more depending on your Fitbit device. If you’re not sure whether your phone is compatible with this feature, go to https://www.fitbit.com/devices. If you're looking for information about idle alerts, see What is a reminder to move?

Device

Notification Options

Fitbit Blaze Fitbit Charge 3 Fitbit Ionic Fitbit Versa

Calls, texts, calendar events within the hour, emails, and other push notifications from apps you choose

Fitbit Alta Fitbit Alta HR Fitbit Charge 2

Calls, texts, and calendar events

Fitbit Flex 2 Fitbit Surge

Calls and texts

Fitbit Ace Fitbit Charge Fitbit Charge HR

Calls

How do I set up notifications?

Besides the Notifications options in the Fitbit app, you may need to modify settings specific to your phone and Fitbit device. To review all the requirements choose your phone below.

iPhone

Have your phone and Fitbit device nearby. Setup may take a few minutes.

Step 1. Verify your phone settings

Open the Settings app to review your phone settings. Confirm or adjust these settings:

Bluetooth—Bluetooth technology allows your phone to communicate with the Fitbit device. Verify that Bluetooth is on.

Do Not Disturb—This feature prevents your phone from sending notifications. Verify that Do Not Disturb is off

Notifications—Your phone must be set to receive notifications before they can be sent to your Fitbit device. Check these settings:

For Phone, Calendar, and Messages, make sure Allow Notifications and Show in History are on.

For Messages, also make sure Show on Lock Screen and Show as Banners are on.

If your Fitbit device can receive app notifications make sure you can receive app notifications on your phone. For example, you can receive Facebook notifications on your Fitbit device, but only if you also receive them on your phone. Find the notifications permissions under Settings > Notifications and use the same settings you used for Messages.

Step 2. Set up notifications in the Fitbit app

Set up the notifications you want to receive on your wrist. Make sure your charged Fitbit device is nearby.

Turn each notification category on or off depending on your preferences. If you want to see calendar notifications, make sure any other calendar apps are synced with your default calendar app. Only the default app sends notifications.

If your Fitbit device can receive notifications from other apps on your phone, tap App Notifications and make your choices. If an installed app is missing from the list, sync your device and then check again.

Step 1: Verify your phone settings

Android version—Verify that the Android version is 5.0 (Lollipop) or higher. Find this setting under About Phone or About Device.

Bluetooth—Bluetooth technology allows your phone to communicate with the Fitbit device. Verify that Bluetooth is on.

Do Not Disturb—This feature prevents your phone from sending notifications. Verify that Do Not Disturb is off. Find this setting under Sound and notification.

Notifications—Your phone must be set to receive notifications before they can be sent to your Fitbit device. Check these settings:

Make sure your phone receives notifications while locked. Find this setting under Sound and notification.

If your Fitbit device can receive app notifications, make sure you can receive app notifications on your phone. For example, you can receive Facebook notifications on your Fitbit device, but only if you also receive them on your phone. Find the notifications permissions under Sound and notification.

Step 2: Set up notifications in the Fitbit app

Tap the type of notification you'd like to receive (Text Messages, Calendar Events, Emails, or App Notifications), and make sure it's turned on.

Choose which apps can send notifications to your Fitbit device. For example, if you'd rather see text messages from WhatsApp than Messages, change the Text messaging (SMS) app setting. (You can only choose 1 app per category.) This list shows the most common apps for these features:

Phone app—Dialer

Text messaging (SMS) app—Messages

Calendar app—Calendar

Email—Email

If your Fitbit device can receive notifications from other apps on your phone, tap App Notifications and make your choices.

If you want to require that only encrypted notifications can pass from your phone to your Fitbit device:

Go back to the Notifications screen and tap Require encryption.

Close and reopen the Fitbit app to start the bonding process required for sending encrypted data.

If you receive messages in a language that doesn't use the Latin alphabet, for example Cyrillic or Arabic languages, your messages may not appear properly on your Fitbit device. To automatically convert unsupported characters into the closest Latin equivalent, tap Enable Transliteration.

Sync your device.

Step 3. Turn on the device's Notification setting

Select Fitbit devices have a Notification setting on the device. To verify that it's on:

Notifications—Your phone must be set to receive notifications before they can be sent to your Fitbit device. Check these settings

Make sure ‘Show notifications on the lock screen and play notification sounds’ and ‘Show and sound reminders when my phone is locked’ are on. Find these settings under System > Notifications & actions.

Make sure you allow the Fitbit app to access your notifications. Find this setting under Privacy > Notifications.

Make sure you allow apps to read or send messages, and that you specifically allow the Fitbit app to access your text notifications. Find these setting under Privacy > Messaging.

Make sure you allow apps to access your calendar, and that you specifically allow the Fitbit app to access your calendar notifications. Find these setting under Privacy > Calendar.

If your Fitbit device can receive app notifications, make sure you can receive app notifications on your phone. For example, you can receive Facebook notifications on your Fitbit device, but only if you also receive them on your phone. Find this setting under System > Notifications & actions. Make sure ‘Notifications’ and ‘Show notification banners’ are turned on and ‘Keep notifications private on the lock screen’ is turned off.

Step 2. Set up notifications in the Fitbit app

Set up the notifications you want to receive on your wrist. Make sure your charged Fitbit device is nearby.

Turn each notification category on or off depending on your preferences. If you want to see calendar notifications, make sure any other calendar apps are synced with your default calendar app. Only the default app sends notifications.

If your Fitbit device can receive notifications from other apps on your phone, tap App Notifications and make your choices. If an installed app is missing from the list, sync your device and then check again.

How do notifications work?

Ace, Alta, and Alta HR vibrate when a notification is available. If your screen is dimmed, turn your wrist towards you or double-tap to see the notification. Texts and events scroll once, and caller names or numbers scroll 3 times. Notifications aren't stored on the device.

Note that Ace only receives call notifications.

Notification tips:

To dismiss a notification, tap once.

Notifications longer than 40 characters won't appear in full.

A plus sign (+) means you have more than 1 notification to read. If you have 3 or more notifications, you'll see a screen with the number of notifications and the corresponding symbol.

If you use more than 1 texting or calendaring app, remember that you'll only see notifications from the app you chose during setup. You're welcome to change apps whenever you like.

Blaze vibrates when a notification is available and the information appears briefly.

Viewing notifications

Swipe up on the clock screen to see your notifications and tap one to expand for more detail. Blaze stores your 30 most recent notifications and automatically deletes them after 24 hours. The information that appears depends on the notification:

Phone call—The caller's name or number. If you have an iPhone, you can also accept or reject calls on your Blaze.

Text message—The sender's name or number and the message, unless you chose to see only the sender in your app settings.

Calendar event—The name, location, and time of the event. You'll only receive notifications for events that start within an hour.

Email—The sender’s name, subject, and contents of the message.

App notification—The app name and contents of the message. App-specific icons may also appear.

Notification Tips

To delete 1 notification, open it and swipe right.

To delete all notifications at once, swipe up to find the Clear All option.

If a text notification is long, swipe up to see the rest. The screen can show up to 160 characters.

To exit the notifications screen, press the Back (left) button.

Accepting or rejecting phone calls

If you're using the Fitbit app for iOS, you can trigger your nearby phone to answer a call (accept a call) or trigger the phone to decline the call and send it to voicemail (reject the call). Blaze doesn't have a microphone or speaker so it's not a substitute for speaking into the phone.

When you get a call notification, tap the green phone to accept or tap the red phone to reject.

Charge 2 vibrates when a notification is available and you have 1 minute to read it. If your screen is dimmed, turn your wrist towards you or press the button. Charge 2 doesn't save notifications so check your phone to see those you miss.

Notification tips:

A plus sign (+) means you have more than 1 notification to read.

To dismiss a notification, press the button on your tracker.

Notifications longer than 40 characters won't appear in full.

If you use more than 1 texting or calendaring app, remember that you'll only see notifications from the app you chose during setup. You're welcome to change apps whenever you like.

You can temporarily turn off notifications. From the clock face, just press and hold the button to stop notifications, then repeat when you want to turn them back on.

Your device vibrates when a notification is available and the information appears briefly.

Viewing notifications

From the clock face, swipe down to see your notifications and tap one to expand for more detail. Your device stores your most recent notifications. The information that appears depends on the notification:

Phone call—The caller's name or number. If you have an iPhone, you can also accept or reject calls on your watch.

Text message—The sender's name or number and the message.

Calendar event—The name, location, and time of the event.

Email—The sender’s name, subject, and contents of the message.

App notification—The app name and contents of the message. App-specific icons may also appear.

Notification Tips

To delete 1 notification, tap the notification > Clear.

To delete all notifications at once, swipe to the top of your notifications and tap Clear All.

If a notification is long, tap it to see the rest of the message contents.

To exit the notifications screen, press the back button or swipe up.

If you clear a notification from your device, the notification is removed from your phone's notification center. If you clear a notification from your phone, the notification is removed from your device.

Accepting or rejecting phone calls

If paired to an iPhone or Android (8.0+) phone, Charge 3, Ionic, and Versa you accept or reject incoming phone calls. If your phone is running an older version of Android OS, you can reject, but not accept, calls from your device.

Note that you can’t speak into the device — accepting a phone call answers the call on your nearby phone.

Charge 3

To accept a call: tap the check mark on your tracker's screen.

To reject a call: tap the X icon to send the caller to voicemail.

Ionic and Versa

To accept a call: tap the green phone icon on your watch's screen.

To reject a call: tap the red phone icon to send the caller to voicemail.

To see this feature in action, watch our video (English only):

When you receive a call or text, Surge vibrates and a banner appears at the top of the screen for 7 seconds, after which a relevant icon in the upper right corner of the screen remains. If the caller or sender is in the contacts list on your mobile device, the banner shows that person's name. Otherwise, the phone number of the caller or sender appears.

To manage notifications:

On the clock, swipe down to view a notification.

If a text notification is long, swipe down to scroll through the entire contents of the text. Your tracker can show up to 32 characters of a subject and up to 160 characters of a text message.

To see a missed notification, press the Action button next to the notifications icon.

If you have several notifications, swipe left and right to see them all. After 20 notifications, Surge deletes the oldest ones to make room for more.

To exit the notifications screen, press the Action button (top right) or the Home button (left).

Does my Fitbit device receive notifications when my phone is in Do Not Disturb, Quiet hours, or Driving mode?

Fitbit Charge 3, Fitbit Ionic, and Fitbit Versa receive notifications while your phone is in Do Not Disturb, Quiet hours, or Driving mode, but your device won’t vibrate or wake the screen. To view notifications, swipe down from the clock screen.

If paired to an Android phone, your Fitbit watch or tracker can alert you to notifications at any time: